HOUSEHOLDERS who suffered flooding in the two previous wet summers may find their houses are uninsurable.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said its members may not continue to offer flood insurance to houses which have already be inundated once its agreement with the Government expires.

At the moment insurance companies are obliged to renew flood insurance for existing customers as long as some flood alleviation has been put in place. But the ABI said its members will not agree to extending that agreement.

Spokesman Malcolm Tarling said: "Our members want to be able to offer flood insurance to householders after the contractual obligation expires.

"We hope not to need such a contractual obligation. The agreement is dated until 2013 because the Government will be publishing its flood strategy in that time.

"We want that strategy to make sure that flood risks are managed properly so we can offer insurance without the agreement."

But he said: "If flooding is inevitable then it will be very, very hard to get insurance, but if it's possible or even probable then insurers will be able to offer insurance because the risk is being managed properly."

Longlevens residents who suffered in the 2007 floods hit out at the news.

Vicky Kemp, whose house in Evergreen Walk was flooded twice two years ago, said: "It's the first I've heard about it and I'm shocked.

"It cost the insurers of my house tens of thousands of pounds after it was flooded twice and where would I find that sort of money? It's just terrible."

As Vicky is a council tenant, the repairs to the fabric of her house were covered by Gloucester City Council's insurance, but the damage to contents was covered by her own insurance.

She said: "Two years ago everything downstairs was destroyed – TV, video, sofas, furniture, carpets, even shoes – it was a nightmare. If I couldn't get contents insurance for the contents, I don't know what I'd be supposed to do, live in squalor for the rest of my life?

"The National Flood Forum has been brilliant in helping me with getting insurance and I'm used to going through the renewals but when a company writes to you and says it won't insure you any more it's a very worrying time."

Chris Pitt, spokesman for Ecclesiastical Insurance, based in Gloucester, said the date of 2013 was more of a timetable with the Government for a strategy to deal better with floods.

"We can't provide cover to properties that will inevitably flood year after year," he said.

"We've got to manage the flood risk better in the first place."

Julie Irwin, who was flooded from her home in Tewkesbury, said the prospect of not being able to insure a house for people living at risk of flooding would be terrifying.